Kintsukuroi
by DeathTheRabbit
Summary: "Peace by force is not peace. It makes you a tyrant like all the others. Before you can have peace, you have to repair things, difficult things. But you can't do it alone." Kihei spoke quietly, his blue eyes hidden by his orange hair. "But I believe you can do it. I believe in all of you."
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Kihei! If you wouldn't mind, would you be able to bring me back some ginger root while you're out? I'd be very appreciative of it!"

Kihei stopped in his tracks, spinning around in a wobbly sort of way to face the woman that had addressed him. "Of course, Suzuki-san! It's no problem at all! It's what my pouch is for, after all! I'll be back by nightfall, and I'll bring plenty of ginger root back for you!"

Suzuki laughed, a wrinkly smile lighting up her old face. "Thank you very much. I'll have a basket of peaches waiting for you."

"Great! See you then!" Kihei spun back around carefully and hobbled off through the bamboo that surround the small village he resided in, aptly named Bamboo Village.

Life in Bamboo Village was peaceful, and those that lived there had never known the pain and destruction of war. Mifune Kihei himself had only faced the hardships of life in a shinobi village, when he'd been sent as a messenger for the village head and had been caught up in the middle of a brutal battle that had cost him both an arm and a leg.

Despite that, he was as happy as he had been before the incident, never even holding any grudge against the shinobi that were to blame for the loss of his limbs.

Now past the thick shield of bamboo that hid the Bamboo Village from sight, Kihei made a beeline for the place he knew that ginger grew, as well as several other useful herbs that had both cooking and medicinal uses.

Limping as quickly as he could, he made it to the grove where each herb grew in abundance. Kihei made sure to visit every other day or so to tend to the herbs, as they had become a main staple of the village, since it was so far away from the larger villages.

Kihei reached down for the wire attached to his prosthetic that allowed him to bend his artificial knee, and pulled it carefully, dropping into a crouch. He leaned down over one of the ginger plants and removed a small knife from his pouch, setting it down on the ground so that he could pull the wire attached to his prosthetic arm.

Shortly after he had gotten used to his prosthetic limbs, Kihei had tinkered with them until he'd managed to make them more functional for his needs. He had rigged wires to each prosthetic; for his arm he had attached some wires to his other shoulder so that certain movements would make it possible for him to move the prosthetic more naturally, and extra wires that he had rigged to bend the wooden fingers enough for him to grasp something, though for that he needed to pull the wires manually with his remaining hand; for his leg he simply attached separate wires for each joint that had to be manually pulled for him to bend each one depending on his knees.

Seven years after the incident, at barely nineteen, Kihei still had somewhat limited mobility. He didn't let it get to him, though, knowing that even if he could never see the world as he wished to, he could move about in the woods surrounding his village without any trouble or help necessary. It was enough for him.

Once he'd adjusted his prosthetic arm to support him while he dug out some of the ginger roots, Kihei began digging down into the soil to where they were like a network of roads; many of them, but difficult to separate.

In practiced motions, Kihei sliced several neat pieces of roots from the plant, leaving plenty for it to survive to produce more in the future. He wrapped the roots in a loose scrap of cloth and stowed them away in his pouch. Then he worked at straightening out his prosthetic leg so that he could stand up again, fixing the wires back into their original positions before using a nearby tree to pull himself up.

Kihei checked the rest of the herbs for fresh growth, an unrestrained smile on his freckled face. Finding that none had enough fresh growth for him to collect, he carefully made his way off in another direction, where he could collect some fresh flowers for his home.

It didn't take long for him to reach a small patch of wildflowers. Unfortunately, none had bloomed so far, the buds still growing slowly, not quite ready to burst and expose their petals.

Instead of picking any of the flowers, Kihei glanced up at the sky, watching as the sun began to set, orange streaking the sky. Though it was a beautiful sight, he knew that he needed to be making his way back home, lest the other villagers notice his absence and worry for his safety.

Kihei turned around and began to slowly make his way back, enjoying the noises of the forest and the peace it brought about.

The peace was interrupted by the sound of hushed voices nearby, unfamiliar to Kihei. The way they spoke made him think that they were not civilians, but instead shinobi.

Unbridled fear erupted in Kihei, and he only froze for a moment to catch a few sentences, memories of the last time he had met shinobi rising up inside him.

"We got the bomber, and he won't be able to make it far with the injuries he's received. I heard that the other team got the other one. We're to kill them on sight when we find them."

Kihei couldn't stay still any longer, and he limped as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the shinobi. It wasn't long before he was running as much as he could with a prosthetic, which wasn't much.

Fear clouded his thoughts and vision, and he didn't realize until too late that he was near the cliff that led down into the valley near the Bamboo Village. He slipped on a loose piece of soil, and slipped down the cliff, rolling painfully.

It felt like an eternity before he reached the bottom, where he was stopped by a large boulder. Dazed and dizzy, he couldn't move for several moments. Pain radiated throughout his body, making him worry that he might have broken something.

Kihei managed to sit up after several minutes, reaching up to wipe away blood dripping from his nose. He sat still for a while, heart pounding with a terrible fear as he stared up at the rapidly darkening sky.

Once he'd realized that the shinobi must have gone in a different direction, Kihei began to calm down and checked each of the wires attached to his prosthetics, pulling his pant leg up carefully.

To his relief, only one had snapped. It would be easy to replace, since he always packed spare wires in case of a situation just like this. The moonlight was bright enough that he would have no problem seeing what he was doing.

It took only fifteen minutes for him to replace the wire, with slight modification for the climb he would have to make back up the small valley.

Using a boulder to support himself, Kihei got to his feet, and stuck the end of the wire that he had left unattached between his teeth. He held it tightly enough so that it would remain locked in place when he put pressure on the false limb.

Kihei began to hobble down the valley carefully towards where he knew there was a path that went back up that wasn't too steep for him to climb, especially with the modification he'd made.

It was a challenging walk to the point where he could start climbing back, especially when he slipped in a puddle and went back crashing into the ground.

Kihei sat up carefully and looked down, the bright moonlight illuminating the bright red puddle he had fallen into. He barely managed to choke back the bile that rose up in his throat at the realization that someone must be terribly hurt out here.

Fear of the shinobi that were likely still roaming the woods battled against the worry he had for whoever was hurt out here. It would dangerous to stay out longer while there were shinobi hunting someone, but...he couldn't just leave anyone out overnight in the cold, hurt and likely scared…

His worry won out over his fear, and Kihei slowly got back up, steeling his heart with determination. He would find whoever was out here hurt, and take them back home so that they could recover.

Kihei didn't have far to go before he found the unfortunate soul that had been hurt. They were sprawled out against a boulder, long blonde hair dyed red with the blood that was spilling from their missing arm.

All around them was debris from what looked like a life-sized puppet. Beside the blonde stranger was the head of said puppet, hair a different shade than the blood it was sitting in, eyes closed. Nearby sat a battered cylinder, leaking something that looked an awful lot like blood.

Unable to keep himself back any longer, Kihei limped over to the wounded stranger that wore a tattered black cloak with red clouds. He dropped to his knees, jerking his head to the side with the wire to bend his prosthetic knee.

He leaned close and dug around in his pouch for the roll of bandages he kept with him in case of emergencies. Finding it, he carefully placed his prosthetic hand on the man's shoulder to keep him still in case he woke, while he unrolled and wrapped the bandages around what was left of his arm.

Blood immediately began soaking through, but it would soon begin to clot with the bandages keeping a certain amount of pressure on the wound.

Kihei leaned back for a moment before checking to make sure that the man didn't have any other life threatening injuries, and bandaging up the ones he found in the same way he had with his arm.

Once he had made sure that the man wouldn't bleed out in the time it took to examine everything around him, Kihei turned his attention to the puppet head and the leaking cylinder. He carefully picked the cylinder up and examined it.

Broken pieces of wood and shards of metal had penetrated it part way, and it looked as if it belonged to the same puppet that was lying in pieces all over the valley.

A strange compulsion overwhelming him, Kihei lifted the cylinder to his ear, nearly dropping it when he heard the unexpected sound it emitted.

A heartbeat; weak and stuttering, and quickly fading.

Panic overwhelmed Kihei, and he set the cylinder down in his lap and placed one hand over it. It took him a moment to remember what the village healer had told him what to do in the case of a medical emergency that needed more than just bandages or medicine.

A flickering green glow surrounded his hand, steadying once he remembered that the healer had also told him that he would need to keep his panic to a minimum, lest he accidentally do more harm than good with the lack of focus that came with his tendency to panic in high stress situations.

At first there was no change, and Kihei feared that he may not have gotten there fast enough to save...what exactly was it that he was trying to save? From all appearances, it looked as if he were trying to save some sort of living puppet…

Shaking off his curiosity, he focused his energy on steadying the heartbeat within. It was a relief when it worked well enough for it to remain beating.

Kihei set his hand down, suddenly feeling exhausted. The glow faded and he let out a small sigh.

Calming down somewhat, he had the presence of mind to wonder how on earth he was going to get the injured man back home, as well as the salvageable pieces of the puppet man. It would surely be too dangerous to ask the other villagers for help, as they tended to be extremely hostile towards strangers. He couldn't just leave them here, though…

Letting out a deep sigh, he carefully wrapped the cylinder in the remaining bandages to keep it from receiving any further damage and gently placed it in his pouch with the ginger.

Then he very gently picked up the puppet's head, frowning as he stared at its youthful face. It wouldn't do well to question any of this, especially since the blonde man still needed more help that Kihei could not give him until he was back at home.

Kihei let out a small sigh and took off his hooded jacket, carefully placing the puppet head in the soft fabric. He made sure to twist it so that the head wouldn't fall out when he tied the the sleeves around his waist in a makeshift pouch.

Once he was sure that the head was secured, he staggered to his feet, loosening the tension on the wire in his mouth that had his knee bent just enough for him to put his weight on that leg.

Using the boulder to support himself, Kihei considered his options for getting the blonde man back to the village.

Hypothetically, if he could get his prosthetic arm under the man's arm, he could lock it and half drag him back up the valley. It was all that he could think up, since carrying him was out of the question.

Deciding to go with that option, Kihei leaned down, clumsily slipping his prosthetic under the man's armpit. He jerked his good shoulder, locking the wire into place.

Kihei lifted the man up halfway, grunting at the effort. It seemed to work for the moment, and deciding that he should get going before his strength failed him, he began hobbling towards the path that would lead up out of the valley.

It was slow going, but Kihei managed to the path, and then up to the top of the valley. Chest heaving with the effort, he didn't stop once he reached the top, worried that if he did, he wouldn't be able to keep going.

Kihei slipped in through the bamboo shield behind his house, knowing that he wouldn't be seen there, like he would if he tried going in through the main path.

Careful not to let the man slip from his grip, he opened the back door into his house and slipped inside. It was dark, just as he had left it.

Kihei carefully dragged the man towards the small room where his bed was, managing to lay him down in it with as much care that was possible. Then he tucked the man in and left him to rest.

Out in the kitchen, he sat at the rickety table and set the puppet's head in the center, unwrapping the strange cylinder with a heartbeat and placing it next to the head. Then he sighed and rested his own head in his good arm on the table.

Exhaustion overwhelmed him and he was out like a light in a matter of seconds, completely unaware of what the future would hold for him because of his entirely too kind actions.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey! Welcome! Originally I wasn't planning on posting any other fics until I was finished with Remnants, but I needed something a little lighter in tone to write, and so that's why I'm posting this! Remnants is still my priority, but I will definitely be working on this as well! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!**

 **Also, for those of you who don't know, kintsukuroi (translates roughly to 'golden repair'), also known as kintsugi, is the art form of repairing broken pottery with different materials, such as lacquer mixed with powdered gold or silver. It's a bit of a difficult process, but it's beautiful once it's done.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Kihei woke up to loud knocking on his front door, and he quickly scrambled to his feet, prosthetic leg crumpling beneath him. He had forgotten to fix it before he had fallen asleep at the table.

"Ah, hang on a minute! I'll be there soon!" He called as he landed on his rear. He yanked up his pant leg and quickly began to properly fix the wire where it belonged.

Once he was done with that, he quickly pulled himself up and tossed a dish towel over the puppet head to hide it in case his visitor wanted to come inside for a cup of tea.

Kihei hobbled over to the front door and pulled it open roughly, nearly falling over in the process.

Waiting outside was the only other villager his age, Suzuki Keiko. "Eh? Kihei, what on earth happened to you? You're covered in blood." She didn't sound very surprised, just mildly exasperated.

Kihei glanced down and frowned when he realized that he hadn't changed out of his clothes from the night before. "Ah, I fell into the valley last night, Keiko-chan…"

"Oh, so that's why you didn't bring obaa-san the ginger she asked for. Tsk tsk, Kihei! If you're not careful, I'm gonna have to babysit you again." Keiko put her hands on her hips and flipped her long, muddy brown hair over her shoulder. "Move aside and I'll help you clean up."

Without waiting for him to answer, Keiko pushed past him inside, marching to the kitchen. She bustled around, setting the kettle over the stovetop with fresh water and bringing out the tea leaves.

Kihei sighed and closed the door behind her, hobbling back into the kitchen. "Keiko-chan, I can take care of myself, you know…"

"Oh, I know that, but I gotta take care of my best friend, y'know?" Keiko set the small box of tea leaves on the counter next to the stove and went to the hall that led to Kihei's room. "I'll get you some clean clothes, so just sit down and rest. Had to have been a painful tumble down, right?"

"Ah, wait, you can't go in there, Keiko-chan." Kihei limped over as quickly as he could, trying to block her path to his room as he remembered the guest currently occupying his bed.

"Why not? I'm just gonna grab clean clothes. Jeez, it's not like I'm gonna go through your underwear drawer or anything." Keiko rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips once more and giving him a suspicious look.

"Because your birthday present is in there right now." Kihei lied quickly, thankful that her birthday was, indeed, coming up in the coming week. "I haven't finished the final touches and wrapped it yet, so you can't go in there."

Keiko raised one perfectly tamed eyebrow and stared at Kihei, her golden eyes piercing. "Hm...fine, then! Go get your clothes yourself, while I finish up with the tea."

Hurrying to do as she asked, Kihei fled to his room, snapping the door shut behind him. He turned and looked over to the unconscious man on his bed. Pale and sickly looking, Kihei would have assumed that the man was dead, if not for the faint rasp of his breath.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he grabbed clean clothes from his closet and limped over to the tiny bathroom attached to his room. He clicked the door shut quietly, and went about changing into his clean clothes.

Muscles sore and bruises aching, it took him longer to change than it normally would. He found that most every movement he made was painful, exacerbated by him having slept slumped over the table instead of in bed or on the couch.

Eventually, Kihei finished changing and went back out to Keiko, making absolute certain that he'd locked his bedroom door so that she could not get in; he had a spare key.

The tea was done by the time he plopped down at the table. "Thanks, Keiko-chan." Kihei took the cup she offered him and took a small sip, enjoying the slightly bitter taste.

"No problem, no problem. Just sit still for a while and I'll clean up your face, okay? It doesn't look like you broke your nose or anything, but...it's better to be safe than sorry, y'know?" Keiko grabbed a fresh towel from beside the sink and wet it down. Then she returned to Kihei's side, pulling a chair up next to him and wiping away the blood caked around his nose.

Kihei flinched, pain lancing across his face as his friend cleaned up his face. "Not so rough, Keiko-chan! That really hurts, y'know!"

"Oh, quit being such a baby. You've gotta get the blood off somehow so that you can show off those cute freckles of yours." Keiko poked him between his eyes, watching as his eyes crossed to watch what she was doing.

"Oh, whatever…" Kihei grumbled, puffing his cheeks out. "My freckles aren't cute, though. They're annoying."

"Hm, well, if that's the case, then you probably shouldn't hang out in the sun so much. You really kinda sank your own ship with that one." Keiko gave him a lopsided grin and leaned away from him. "There you are. That's better."

"Meh, I guess you're kinda right about that." Kihei conceded, watching Keiko carefully to make sure that she wouldn't go for the towel covering the puppet head.

To his relief, she wasn't the least bit interested in that, instead focused on sipping her own tea. "Obaa-san sent me to get the ginger root that you promised her, so cough it up. Also, you're invited for dinner tonight, if you want." Keiko rolled her eyes. "I think she still wants us to get together."

"Have you told her yet?" Kihei frowned a bit.

"What? You want me to go up to her and say 'sorry, I won't be giving you any great grandchildren because I'm a huge lesbian, and by the way, Kihei is super gay, too?' I bet that would go over real well with her. I don't think she even knows what a lesbian is. Ojii-san is perfectly okay with it, though. He offered to introduce me to a super cute merchant…" Keiko sighed.

Kihei couldn't help but laugh a little. "Don't tell her that."

"God, Kihei, I wish we could just leave this stupid village behind and travel the world. Like we planned when were ten." Keiko plopped her head down on the table and groaned.

"I know, Keiko-chan. I wanna go, too...but it's too dangerous right now. We'd be goners two days after we left." Kihei looked up at the ceiling and sighed, cursing his inability to defend himself.

"I'll protect you, Kihei. I've been training, and I've gotten so much better! Please, Kihei, let's just run away. Please. I'm so sick of it here. I don't want to take over the village when Otou-san dies. I want to see the world!" Keiko looked up at Kihei, her eyes begging, pleading for him to agree.

How could Kihei say no? He hated seeing his best friend suffer so much. He knew that she bore a lot of responsibilities that he knew nothing about. Keiko was not suited for leading a village, even a small one; even Kihei could see that.

"I'll think about it, okay? No promises, though. Even if I do say yes, it'll take some time to prepare, so don't get your hopes up." Kihei mumbled, frowning a bit.

Every part of him wanted to leave just as much as she did. Sure, he was content to spend his days in some small village, tending to his plants. But...his dream of travelling still hadn't been crushed.

"I suppose that's all I can ask…" Keiko let her head plop back onto the table and sighed. "What about dinner tonight?"

"Ah, sorry, but I've got some stuff to do tonight. Thanks for the invite, though. Here, I'll grab the ginger for you." Kihei reached for his pouch and removed the ginger root from inside. He handed her the roots and smiled. "You'd better get these to Suzuki-san, okay?"

"Oh, fine. Take care of yourself, though, okay? Don't fall into the valley again!" Keiko got up, taking the ginger root and tucking it into her jacket pocket. "See ya later."

Kihei waved and watched her disappear through the front door, a small smile on his face. He waited until he was sure that she was gone, and then checked the clock, surprised to find that it was already way past noon.

With a sigh, he got up and limped down to his room, retrieving the key to his room and unlocking the door. Inside, the injured man was still unconscious.

Kihei hurried over to check on him, pushing his blonde hair out of his face to check his temperature. To his relief, it was normal.

Done with that, he began checking the wound at the end of what was left of his arm, relieved when he saw that infection hadn't set in. He gently wrapped the wound again and leaned back to think for a moment.

He didn't know who this man was, or why the black cloak with red clouds set off warning bells in his head. All he knew was that he was happy he had been able to do something to help him. He hated it when there was nothing he could do to help, and no matter who this was and what he had done, he didn't want to watch him die.

In that, and many other, ways, he was far different than his parents. While his parents were renowned shinobi that had been recognized for single handedly decimating an entire force of enemy shinobi all on their own, Kihei himself was someone who preferred to help rather than harm. While his parents had abandoned him without an explanation immediately following the loss of his limbs and usefulness to them, Kihei would never abandon or leave someone behind, no matter how battered and broken they were.

His parents were bastions of war and death, but Kihei believed in peace.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Kihei got up and shuffled out of his room to leave the stranger to rest.

It would be a while before he could go to collect what he hadn't been able to carry out of the valley the night before; he didn't want to get caught by any of the other villagers and questioned about what he was up to. Keiko already seemed suspicious enough.

With a sigh, Kihei grabbed a wash rag and got it damp in the sink. He returned to the table and sat. Lifting the towel over the puppet's head, he studied it closely.

Kihei remembered watching his mother build puppets when he was much, much younger. He had always been fascinated with them, but his mother had never let him touch any of her precious puppets that he had later realized were dangerous weapons not to be handled by a child. It was where he had learned about living puppets.

Even though his mother had kept him from touching her puppets, Kihei had watched her work many times before and had started making some of his own. It had been something that he had enjoyed doing, and his father had encouraged him.

Now, with only one hand that had fine motor control, it was nearly impossible for him to do as much as he had when he was a child. It saddened him that he could no longer work with puppets the way he had used to, but he had also found something else he enjoyed just as much; the art of kintsukuroi.

Kihei shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts and went to work gently cleaning the dirt from the puppet head, admiring the detail that had gone into it. Whoever was living in this puppet body had taken great pride in their work; from the soft, downy hair to the realistic facial features that were pliable enough to possibly express emotion, should the owner actually retain any form of emotion.

Once he was done, Kihei set the head back down on the table to the strange cylinder that beat like a heart. He rose to his feet and grabbed a new wash rag, going back to his room, where the man with the long blonde hair remained unconscious.

He went to work carefully cleaning the blood and mud from his face and neck. Though it was difficult, Kihei managed to shift the red cloud cloak off of the man so that he had better access to what was left of his arm.

Kihei took the next few hours cleaning as much of the blood from the man as he could, carefully inspecting him for any other injuries that he might have missed the first time around. Thankfully, there weren't any other injuries that were as bad as the loss of his limb, though it did look as though he had fractured his leg, if not broke it completely.

Once he was done with his task, Kihei got to his feet and limped back into the kitchen, cleaning himself up before grabbing himself something to eat.

By the time he had finished eating, the sun had begun to set and all the villagers would have retreated into their homes for the rest of the night.

Kihei changed into something more suitable for trekking around in the chilly evenings and slung a big bag over his good shoulder, so that he would have a way to carry whatever he found back up to the top of the valley without much trouble.

Ready to make the trek, Kihei waited until the sun set completely behind the trees before leaving under the cover of darkness.

Kihei was ready for whatever awaited him in that valley.


End file.
